


What about us? (We're not in Paradise)

by that_scifi_man31



Series: Gaia Rangers GPD [1]
Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers S.P.D., Red vs. Blue, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Chorus Trilogy (Red vs. Blue), Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25675879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/that_scifi_man31/pseuds/that_scifi_man31
Summary: Immediately after the last chapter, the GPD rangers, with only a small handful of armed subordinates and a couple of medical officers and scientists, decide to help the planet of Therlathia, taking sides in a civil war to help restore balance. But they eventually discover, after each half the team was held captive by both sides things are not as they seem and there is a more sinister play afoot.
Series: Gaia Rangers GPD [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860385
Kudos: 2





	What about us? (We're not in Paradise)

At the time that Catalina and her team were in a battle with Angel Hydran in orbit around Therlathia; Brutan, Nolan, and the Gemini Rangers, Sewil and Feby, were heading back to Mars to keep the mysterious voice from freeing more enhanced individuals like both Angel and Charlie, but possibly more ill-tempered and stronger than them. They and Nolan’s crew quickly arrived and infiltrated the facility, Mara Nolte accompanying them, with no resistance at all and found all the machinery up and running and the list of inmates was growing gradually, with each name having a file that read more worse than the previous. This gave the rangers a brief pause for concern before immediately reacting. But the moment they tried to disable the machinery; a large hostile presence made themselves known with heavy gunfire from further inside the cryogenic population. A large group of robots were accosting them from pretty much every direction possible and our heroes, those with ranger forms, donned them immediately, while the others just pulled out their guns, took to cover, and returned fire.

Nolan Kirk, in his ranger form, his suit was a swirl of light blue and dark blue and gray and white sparkles which were meant to depict a spiraling galaxy. His visor was a triangular line with three smaller lines rising from it and a small triangle in the corner of the angled line.

Sewil Anson’s rangers form was a reddish-orange in a color similar to the surface of Mars with the male symbol on his chest. His sister, Feby, had a suit similar in color to the surface of Venus with the female symbol on the chest. And their visors were in the shape of the Gemini Zodiac sign in black-gray color merged with a black oval shape surrounding it. And their respective gender symbols painted on both sides of their helmets. In addition to their standard issue sidearm, they also had swords with their gender symbols on them and a staff they could summon whenever they wanted to which, Sewil had the male symbol on the tip of, and Feby had the female symbol on the tip of, which, when they merged, allowed them to deal a devastating blow to their opponents.

Mara Nolte and a few technicians from Nolan’s ship were in charge of shutting the machines down and keeping the population from thawing out while Sewil, Feby, Brutan, and Nolan fought to protect them as they did so. They all had their work cut out for them. it wasn’t easy, but they remained diligent in their tasks.  
The rangers’ foes were menacing and mighty machines resembling some sort of demon-like figure with long, curvy horns and blood red eyes and ferociously sharp claws; Some of them sported bladed weapons instead. But all of them with huge, bat-like wings, which looked to be made of some type of aura, especially in the way they unfolded before they took flight. These beasts fought ferociously and were almost unpredictable as time passed. But still, our heroes endured.

Sewil and Feby mostly relied on a form of dance fighting technique that was similar to that of a combination of contemporary, ballet, and gymnastics as they displayed, in certain moves, a kind of attack-and-retreat, where one twin would attack, back away, and allow the other to step in and finish for them. and in other moves, they worked together in using their opponent’s own force against them. like when one enemy approached, you had Sewil was in front, defending and countering as Feby was behind him, waiting for her moment to intervene. Sewil was knocked back, but he immediately reached back for his sister’s hand, spiraled, and swung her into the demon with her doing a flying kick to the face to knock him down. Another demon stepped him to assist his fallen teammate with a frontal kick, but Sewil and Feby, after getting to her feet, spiraled until they’re kneeling beside each other, one arm wrapped around the other, caught the demon’s leg, stood up simultaneously and pushed forward and drove him onto his back. The first demon got to his feet and Feby immediately equipped her sidearm to shoot him down. And Sewil did the same for the second demon when he got to his feet. And then the two of them turned, spiraled past one another and under each other’s shots as they continued mowing down the oncoming robot demons. When the enemy slowly outnumbered them, they switched to swords and the switched from swords to their staffs, using them mostly to hit with before finally merging the sex symbols on the top to deliver a devastating beam of energy to the enemy one by one.

Nolan Kirk fought with his fists, his feet, and so on, and eventually drew his weapon to thin his opponents out and eventually used a move called Meteoric devastation descent in which he created chunks of space debris the size of golf balls and baseballs to destroy some of the tougher machines which survived laser fire as well as strikes from his baton or his punches and kicks. But occasionally, he had to thank Brutan for rescuing him from enemies that escaped his peripheral vision.  
Brutan, despite lacking a ranger form, was pretty durable, as most of his species is like. Some of the reason why foes they face need to fight smarter instead of harder, because Orogorians can be quite lethal; somewhere in between a bull and a gorilla. The demon-like metal monstrosities he and the others were facing were both as strong and somewhat smarter at times in the ongoing battle, but Brutan and his brute strength proved to be sufficient in turning them to scrap like his friends were also doing.  
several minutes later, Mara and her team successfully stop the machines and the rehabilitation process and the rangers caused the robot demons’ numbers to dwindle down to a few dozen and then down to zero. They were still confused as to what they were and who sent them. but immediately, their concerns switched to the other rangers as they fought Angel for the weapons she had stolen. 

Once back onboard Nolan’s ship, they tried to establish communication, but were greeted by nothing but static. Nolan’s crew attempted to link to a communication tower on the surface of Mars to the ship and use one of the satellites on one of Mars’ moons to boost the signal, but it didn’t work either.   
After contacting Maas Tobias and relaying the information and what they assumed may have happened to the rangers, they came to find that all of this was new to him.

“Wait, weren’t you the one who sent me intel on Brutan, claiming that he was working with her to steal weapons?

“Good heavens, no, Mr. Kirk. I mean, I don’t even have any knowledge of this ‘Angel Hydran’ and that she and this Charlie Matheson had been freed. and I just had my people look them up as we are speaking right now. And it has said he and Angel died years ago. So, I’m having a hard time believing what you all are telling me.”

“Sir, it’s all true. The two of them were part of some super soldier program back when I was a ranger. I thought they were dead too, Maas. I was surprised to see her kicking my rangers’ behinds the first time in Golden Gate City. And I ran a search and found out he was still alive too and our only option in capturing Miss Hydran. And right now, we’re not certain of anyone’s fate, except that they were last in Therlathian territory,” explained Brutan.

“We don’t even know if they’re dead or alive,” replied Feby.

Meanwhile, on the planet of Therlathia, things were starting off a bit confusing for the rangers. At the moment, Charlie Matheson, was dreaming. He was back with Cheryl Monticelli, the young version of her back when they were both rangers of GPD. But without ranger forms. The two of them were in love, and currently on a date.  
At this this time, Cheryl was in her 30’s; blonde hair, black eyebrows, gray-white eyes, slim-looking, not that much muscular; almost like a clothing model. A vision in the minds of most men as their dream girl. 

They were in a bar, have dinner and drinks. After eating, they were playing drinks. They matched each other shot for shot, but only temporarily, was Charlie keeping up with her. She was taunting him. And Charlie’s feelings were being hurt, they were going back and forth. And finally, she asked him, were all the shots he took more worse than the shot her gave her. He was confused as to why she was asking him this, but that expression soon turned to shock as Cheryl took out her sidearm and popped him in the shoulder, which immediately woke him from his dream in a somewhat cold sweat and a fright.

Charlie found himself in a type of trauma unit or something. He’s sitting on a makeshift bed you see in MASH units or a mobile command center comprised mostly of tents and he’s confused as to how he got there. There weren’t any nurses or doctors or anyone of any kind in the room. But he did he see someone passed by the door unaware that he had awoken and decided to rush out to meet them.

From a distance, it looked as if the man was wearing a hospital mask or respirator of some, but it wasn’t until Charlie got his attention that he realized the thing he though was a mask was actually part of his face. He wasn’t even sure if it were male, given by the look on the alien’s face the moment they turned to look at Charlie.  
“Are you gonna just stand there, looking at me like you’ve seen a ghost, or are you gonna say something, because I don’t have time for games or whatever this is,” he asked.  
Charlie shook his head to snap back into reality and then asked him two question. One being about where it is that he was and the other being whether or not if he had seen his friends, Charlie, Catalina, B’rula, Kar-Mahn, and Libby.

The doctor was name Sy’Leeo. His somewhat masculine voice led Charlie to assume he was male. And he was correct. Apart from him wearing a white coat and aquamarine shirt and pants accompanied by white tennis shoes, the doctor’s color was literally the color of a night sky; his eyes the color of a red supergiant star as well as areas around the face and mask. Under the doctors’ clothing, he wore a type of black suit-like armor that covered every inch of him. Both this and the mask he wore was also worn by other Therlathians, whether they be merchants, civilians, soldiers; it didn’t matter.

“Right now, you’re in the infirmary, recovering from your crash. And for the moment, where you are is classified.”

“What the hell you mean ‘classified’ you Bane from Dark Knight Rises reject?”

“Those are my orders. The soldiers who brought you all here received those same orders, but as for the hell are they and they’re guarding you is a mystery. But anyway, I’m supposed to escort you to the General the moment you awake; nothing more. Your friends are already on their way.”

“Why are we even being held at all? What the fuck did we do wrong?”

“Your kind aren’t even supposed to be here; GPD, I mean…”

“Why the fuck not? Where the hell is this? I understand that specifically, the information is classified, but on a much broader term, where the hell are we?”

“Therlathia,” the doc responded. “And our governments are really cooperating with each other. So, I don’t quite understand why our leader would even entertain the notion of an audience with the likes of you in the first place. If it were up to me, the four of you would be six feet under right now.”

“Well, thankfully, the decision isn’t yours to make. May I please meet your General now? So we can end all of this and you guys can get us the hell off your planet. Wait, the four of us? There are supposed to be six. What happened to them?”

“You’ll have to ask the General. I’m just a doctor, GPD scum. Now, where are those idiots that were supposed to make sure you didn’t wander off? I swear, they better not be off somewhere, doing another one of their failed attempts at rap battling. Bellandei is gonna make them do janitorial again if she finds out. Come with me. And don’t try anything clever.”

“You’re gonna stick up for them?”

“Unlike you and your organization, we don’t turn on each other.”

“We don’t do that either.”

“You claim not to, but I’ve seen some of that firsthand. Both in GPD and among your species.”

“Which do you have a vendetta against the most?”

“I hate both just as equally.”

“You shouldn’t judge a book by the first two pages, man. Keep reading, what you see might surprise you,” Charlie said light-heartedly.

“I’ll give that consideration, but I won’t hold my breath.” The doctor finally located the two goofball soldiers, hanging out near the vending machine and immediately gained their attention with the clearing of his throat in disapproval. He briefly scolded them, asking them to recall the number of times he had to cover for them whenever they decided to do something crazy, stupid, or foolish. 

The two shamefully hesitate to answer that question and instead of letting them finish, the doctor cuts them off; ordering them to escort Charlie to the General and reassuring them that he will cover for them once more. And emphasized that this will be the last time before leaving in a mad huff.

Upon arriving, Charlie overheard the conversation between the General Bellandei, Catalina, B’rula, and an unknown female. The only thing was for certain is that she appeared human, which gave Charlie cause for concern; as the doctor just mentioned that Humans and Therlathians don’t get along. After Charlie attempts to figure out the contradiction in the doctor’s logic, the doctor only had this to say.

“Human or not, Bellandei seems to believe she could be useful in the war. Doesn’t mean I have to like the idea of a human involved in our planet’s technological advancements, but still…”

“You said war, what war?”

“Just the type of response I’d expect from a human. Anyway, go ask the General. I need to get back to the infirmary.”

As Charlie approached, the conversation between the General and the others gradually became clearer and clearer. Charlie could make out some of the words. He heard the General scolding the unknown woman; literally questioning her competence. As they discussed the rangers crash landing on the planet and the sudden appearance of a mysterious city miles from basecamp only a few weeks prior. Bellandei drew a conclusion, assuming that the two situations are somehow linked and not coincidental. And the woman, whom Bellandei referred to as Rozara Pengo, tried reassuring her that they’re not.

Aside from sporting the same suit and mask that other soldiers, the doctor, and other medical staff wore, Bellandei also sported red stripes which moved horizontally across her helmet. She wore some unknown device on her right wrist, which looked like a really advanced watch; a knife holster hung on her left shoulder and a gun holster on her left hip.  
“Allow me to run a perimeter sweep of the island in question and let you know if I find anything odd,” Rozara pleaded. “I’ll have some of my drones out to relay the information back to base.”

“Alright, but let me the ‘instant’ you discover something.”

“Don’t worry, I will.” Rozara walks past Charlie with a smile on her face as she winks at him.

Bellandei just looked up at Charlie with alarming concern, only to have the rangers explain that Charlie was with them.

“Listen, ma’am, after the day I had, I am in no mood for games. I wanna what’s going on here, where the fuck am I, and what did you do with our friends.” Charlie continued to shout.

“First off, maybe lower your voice. Second, I don’t know if I can fully trust the three of you yet to know where we are, and thirdly, when my soldiers got to the crash site, it was just the three of you and what looked to be half a ship. So, I wanna know where’d you all come from, and trust me, ‘I’ am in no mood for games. Because, as I mentioned to Rozara, I’m a little bit skeptical; you three showing up just weeks after that mysterious island rose up from the sea. For all I know, it could be one of Gillyndos’ and so are you.”

“Who’s Gallyndos?” asked B’rula.

“GPD, typical GPD. But I guess it’s expected. You basically destroy our way of life and then you move; forget about us,” answered one of the soldiers that were escorting Charlie before being told to be quiet by General Bellandei, aggressively.

“We know you guys have a civil war going on, but…”

“I didn’t,” Charlie said, interrupting Catalina. “I just got thawed out earlier today. I don’t know anything.”

“Pretty much, we and your organization had a deal; a group of GPD officers broke that deal. And now, we’ve learned that we cannot rely on you for anything; to cut a long story short. Then from there, that’s when things spiraled out of control for our entire race. Lines were drawn, sides were taken, and backs were stabbed and left to bleed out where they stood.”

“What does this have to do with our friends, Libby and Kar-Mahn?” asked Charlie.

“Some of my scouts mentioned they saw another flash of light in the sky a great distance away from where we found you. It looked to be heading towards the main city, which means that Gallyndos might have them.”

“Well, then what are we standing here talking to you for?”

“We don’t know this territory that well, Charlie,” Catalina explained.

“And, if you wish to purchase a guide, I’d be happy to oblige, but only if you help our cause.”

“You want us to join your civil war? Not only is this not our fight, but GPD isn’t supposed to get involved in such matters,” replied B’rula.

“The way I see, you’re at my mercy right now. Stranded on a planet now embargoed by your company, no way to communicate your position to said company, no ship to get off this planet and forget you ever met us. Must I go on? Practically, you owe us for saving your life. And I don’t like the idea of teaming up with you either, if that makes you feel better. But Gallyndos’ forces outmatch us drastically and maybe, with a little outside interference, we may turn the tide.”

“Well, if you want our help, then we’re going to need our morphers and weapons back,” replied Catalina.

“Your weapons are the only things available at the moment. Rozara is currently working to repair the morphers as they were badly damaged in the crash. But if it’s armor you need, my men can escort you to our weapons locker,” explained Bellandei.

“You didn’t find any weapons onboard our half of the ship?”

“The moment Rozara and my troops got there, all we found was you. Maybe Gallyndos has them. and if he does, I know a place where he may have stashed them. and just so we’re clear, if we find them, they’re ours to do with what we wish; same as you. And it is non-negotiable.”

“I didn’t say anything,” replied B’rula nervously as Bellandei looked over at him harshly.

“Once we help you out and hold up our end of the bargain, don’t be shocked to find that we’re having this discussion again, ma’am,” Catalina explained to Bellandai in a somewhat combative manner.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be,” she replied much the same tone. “You will follow Rozara Pengo’s lead on this. You sneak in, you survey the area, kill any who get in your way if necessary, and if the weapons are there, place all in a pile and put one of these beacons on it so your air support can swoop in. you’re gonna have to stay and watch it so the enemy doesn’t get the drop on you. And then we blow the entire compound to pieces with explosives Rozara is also going to be packing.”

“You’re just gonna steal the weapons, if they’re there, and blow the place up? You don’t want any intel?”

“Rozara will be in charge of gathering the intel. You’ll be in charge of the smash-and-grab mission, which is also a smokescreen to draw attention away from her mission. The enemy, if they have the weapons on site, will do everything they can to make sure you don’t get out of there alive. One of you will remain by her side as she sneaks in to the server room. And the two of you follow the rest of my men, spread out, plant the explosives, and draw out the enemy patrols and draw them ‘away’ from Rozara.”

“I’ll remain with her,” replied B’rula, sounding somewhat eager in his tone. 

After stocking up on weapons and ammunitions, Catalina, B’rula, Charlie, two and a half dozen of Bellandai’s soldiers, and Rozara headed out to the enemy base. And after killing three random patrolmen, they began surveying the area from a cliffside lined with trees, which provided excellent cover as it was almost sunset and the sun was behind them.   
Catalina and two of the soldiers in their company scoped out the compound with nightvision goggles, checking the entryway, the surrounding areas to study the guards’ movements. The soldiers, compared to Bellandei’s, who wore blue stripes on their suits, wore a mixture of black and green suits with dark green rubbery quill-like bands on the back of their hands near the knuckles. The color green on their suits were in weird patterns on them as it filled in the creases on which were aligned with their muscle-like indentations There were a couple of trucks passing through the checkpoint and a tall lookout tower to gain access into the base. It was assumed that the stolen weapons were onboard those trucks. But before they could go after them, Rozara needed to get inside the server room. The company stealthily approach and find a blindspot in the outer wall, which they took advantage of to cut a hole and make their way in. 

From there, that was when B’rula and Rozara split off from the others. Both factions move quietly and plant their explosives. It takes two minutes for Rozara and B’rula to make it to the server room, but they wait for the others to start making as much noise as they can to draw the majority of the enemy away before they go in.  
Catalina and the others detonate a small portion of their ordnance, they take cover, and shoot down any enemy soldiers that came to investigate; eventually, they end up wading into the deepest and most overwhelming firefight that Catalina or any of her teammates have ever been in. constantly, the entire group had to keep switching positions as the enemy was literally coming at them from every angle possible.

Meanwhile, B’rula had the easiest job out of everyone as he was literally just guarding the big open door from nothing. All the soldiers were too busy lining up to get taken down by Catalina and company. B’rula was getting bored keeping an eye on the door and keeping an eye on Rozara, who was having her own fun hacking into the computers. But eventually, Rozara’s attention was temporarily captured as she soon saw on security cameras that someone was walking into view; not a random enemy soldier. It was a woman with snow white skin, a shining blue gem in the center of her forehead, who was dressed in a blue cloak with metal raindrop-shaped metal emblems tied to her wrists and glowing, blue orbs attached to her waist, a rifle on her back and a pistol in hand. Rozara referred to her as Athen Raahma with a look in her eyes like she had just seen a ghost, which lead B’rula to question who she was with great confusion.

“She and I were partners before all this craziness. I dunno what the hell she’s doing here though. Probably heard I was here. We need to get out of here now.”

“B-b-b-but what about the intel?” B’rula stuttered.

“We’ll never live to abscond with it. Reunite with your team and detonate the explosives to cover our escape; I’ll cover you.”

B’rula acknowledged the command, but he was ultimately lying as he decided to go back and try to finish what Rozara couldn’t, or so he suspiciously thought that she couldn’t and was nearly making it up. He wasn’t as good of a hacker as Gogalon was, nor was he as good of a gamer as he was, but he was willing to give it a try anyway. In hopes of giving himself and his fellow rangers a good name and put them in good standings with Bellandei.

Meanwhile, outside, Rozara and Athen Raahma came in contact. First, giving each other smiles as if they were a best-friends turned enemies, meeting at a High School Reunion. And then after a few brief stares and exchanging of what amounted to playground insults, and after explosions began all around them, the two lunged at each other. A ferocious battle ensues, and for a while, the two of them match each other move-for-move like their minds were one in the same, eventually one of them got in a lucky hit and drove the other into a wall, metal containers that somewhat resembled oil drums, metal crates; pretty much anything in their environment without ever knocking one another to the ground once. 

Moments later, Charlie stumbled upon Athen and Rozara, and it looked like Rozara as losing the fight. He immediately came to her rescue by detonating the rest of the explosives and knocked both Rozara and Athen down. Athen was unconscious after hitting her head, but Rozara was still wide awake, but a little disoriented from the blast. He was expecting a thank you from Rozara for saving her, but she complained that he almost killed her instead. And then went on to say that she was handling it.

“Didn’t look like you were handling anything. And where the hell is B’rula?”

“Are you kidding me? He was supposed to be going to get you and the others!”

B’rula rushed in right behind Rozara lied to her, saying that he was pinned down.

“Well, this entire thing was a complete bust. As we took care of the enemy forces, half of us split off to locate the weapons, but we couldn’t find anything,” Charlie replied.

“What?” asked Catalina in total shock, causing Charlie to repeat himself.

“There’s nothing here!” he exclaimed as he tossed his helmet to the ground in anger.

“Seems like your intelligence was off,” Catalina scolded. “And speaking of which…”

“She decided to cut-and-run once this one showed up,” B’rula said as he pointed down to the corpse of Athen Raahma.  
Catalina looked up at the server room, and despite it being in flames and have parts of the walls falling off, she raced back inside, hoping they could still salvage the information stored on the computers, but all there was was computers with cracked screens, keyboards with several of the keys missing and holes in several of the data servers. Catalina was beyond pissed off. But on the way back to base, B’rula had a private chat with Catalina, in which he revealed that he was able to salvage something before the whole place was destroyed. That there was something odd about Rozara and that he didn’t trust her.

They also kept this from Bellandei, as they weren’t sure who they trust. And Bellandei was disgusted that the entire mission was a failure. And the rangers were eavesdropping on the entire thing.

“I would hardly count this a success. No weapons, no data. You basically blew that place up for nothing,” she scolded. “And all because you had to get into a grudge match with your old partner.”

“They don’t call her Athen Raahma the Spiritual for nothing. Every time in the past when I thought she had died, she always reappeared. There’s not really much in the ways of stopping her or killing her. I’m sorry, ma’am.”

“Your apology is best saved for somebody who is new to your crap, Ms. Pengo!” Bellandei replied sharply. “If I wanted a blunt instrument, I’d either go down to my local hardware store to buy a hammer, or a sporting goods store for a baseball bat. I employed you to be a scalpel.”

“That’s very harsh.”

“No no no. ‘Harsh’ is how I treat those rangers, who seem to be proving their worth in spite of your screw ups. So far, before they showed up, and before that island rose up out of the sea, you were as reliable as, or even more than, they have been on their first outing.”

Catalina and B’rula looked at each other with confusion, which made Charlie wonder what they knew, which he didn’t. they explained further about the island that Bellandei had mentioned when Charlie had finally woken up and join Cat and B’rula at the meeting. This news then made them further question Rozara and her intentions. 

“She was really eager to drop what she was doing, the moment that one woman showed up,” whispered B’rula.

“That could mean anything,” whispered Catalina.

“I’ve had similar experiences with characters such as her in the past, so I’m inclined to agree with B’rula’s suspicions,” whispered Charlie.

“The only way we can know for sure is if we find out what information B’rula picked up that she didn’t want Bellandei to get,” explained Catalina.  
B’rula implied that they would need to gain access to Rozara’s lab. And Charlie and Catalina agreed. But they needed her password first. And it was Charlie, who volunteered to pump her for information; boasting about how irresistible he is to women.

The moment Rozara was alone, Charlie approached her. He tried making her feel better about being scolded, berated, and outright embarrassed by her employer, but instead of hearing what he had to say, Rozara turned to leave. Charlie then shared his experiences with commanding officers such as Bellandei that they were much, much worse in hopes of persuading her to stay and chat.

Rozara stopped midway as she was pulling a 180, turned to face him once more asked, “What’s your point?” hoping to understand Charlie’s motives a little better. “I don’t mean to be rude, it’s just that I’m very busy.”

“Busy with what? Perhaps I can help you.”

“What could you possibly know about computers?”

“Well, maybe you can give me on-the-job training then? I really wanna help you.”

“Why?”

Over the earpiece communicator provided to her and the others by Bellandei, Catalina emphasized how that was a much better idea, as now Charlie can gain access to Rozara’s lab without having to trick the password out of her. She asked Charlie to come back and get the data drive from her and B’rula before accompanying Rozara to the lab.

“I’ll meet you there, I just need to get a notebook,” Charlie joked.

As Charlie rushed off, Rozara looked at him with a somewhat heartwarming smile before casually turning around and returning to the lab. The moment she got there, Charlie had stepped up behind her, casually getting her attention like an eager fanboy who had just met his celebrity crush and a nervous smile. Rozara lightly chuckled and greeted him before inviting him inside with her.

Almost immediately when the two of them walked in, Charlie saw Catalina and B’rula’s morphers just sitting on one of the tables, and Rozara invited him to reclaim them, saying that she’s done the necessary repairs. “They were pretty banged up,” she explained.

Catalina was still communicating with Charlie, and she was a bit befuddled by Rozara’s statement. B’rula’s morpher could be easily fixed, but her Platinum Ranger morpher, was a bit more complicated of a device to work on, except by technicians at GPD, of course. She wondered how Rozara could just work on it and not come across any roadblocks. She ordered Charlie to pick them up, but to proceed with trying to find a way to sneak a peek at the data drive without Rozara knowing. And at the same time, B’rula asked Catalina about why they wouldn’t just report this to Bellandei.

“I mean, given what we overheard the two of them talking about…” said B’rula

“This is unknown and uncharted territory for us,” explained Catalina. For all we know, that conversation could’ve been an act.”

“I dunno, her emotions as she thoroughly chewed up Rozara seemed very genuine,” he said in a reassuring tone. “And what motive would Bellandei have to go along with whatever it is you think is going on here?”

“Once we find out what it is that’s on that drive, then we can figure out who it is we can trust. Charlie, when you see an opening, get to it. Cough three times if you agree.”  
Charlie acknowledged and Rozara proceeded to show concern for him.

“I wish we had our own communicators back. I miss the texting option.”

As Rozara continued talking, explaining what she knew about computers to Charlie while traversing the room, she immediately stopped talking to respond as soon as Charlie accidentally responded to Catalina’s statement about their communicators. “Me too, what?” she asked, capturing Charlie’s attention. 

“What?” he asked.

“You said ‘me too’.”

“Did I?” replied with a surprised look. “I was just thinking out loud.”

“Am I boring you?” she replied in a very curious, and not sarcastic, manner. “We can stop if you want. Would you like to Tea?”

“They have Tea on Therlathia?” 

Rozara had brewed some iced tea in advanced, and prepared to serve it to Charlie, instead of brewing it hot, as the weather in the region of the planet they inhabited was unpredictable. Some days it was significantly cold, while other times the temperature would fluctuate between moderate, warm, and hotter than an average day in Middle eastern desert on Earth. “Pretty much the only thing that there is, in this camp anyway. I heard a rumor they have much more lavish and tantalizing libations and sustenance at the Capitol. Far superior to what’s here. But… it’s merely a rumor. Most of these soldiers have never even been there before this bloody war even began.”

Charlie followed her with his eyes all across the lab as Rozara took two glasses to the sink to wash them and dry them before pouring the iced tea for them to drink. “How long has things been this bad? Forgive me, I’ve been frozen for hundreds of years.”

After Rozara waked over to him and passed him the glass, she replied, “It’s been this way for at least 5 years. I’ve been here on this planet for three and a half.”

“Must’ve been lonely, right? For you and that… what was the name of that woman I saved you from?”

“How do you know she and I were here together?”

“I saw the look in your eyes after she went down. I’ve seen that look before; from lovers, siblings and friends. Not my friends though, but still… was she your girlfriend, a sister or something?”

Rozara took a sip before answering, telling Charlie the story of her and Athen Raahma and how they were friends before as part of a small army of mercenaries. But before she could finish, she needed to visit the restroom. After putting her glass of tea down, she gave a quick smirk before she turned to leave, and gave Charlie his chance to examine the data drive. And over the communicator, Catalina was shocked to find out how easy of an opportunity that was before instructing Charlie to proceed. B’rula instructed Charlie how to hook up the drive, open it in a folder, and view the files.

The files contained large lists of shipments heading for various bases owned by Gallyndos. There were detailed notes about the island written by Athen Raahma, based on what she knew about it since its rise from the ocean. Pretty much stuff that would benefit Bellandai, but not our heroes; except for detailed notes pertaining to the whereabouts of Libby and Kar-Mahn. They were being held at a base not too far from the one that was supposed to have all the stolen weapons from Angel Hydran’s ship. And there was also the location of the crash site for the other half of the ship. Catalina finally changed her mind about not trusting Bellandei and decided she needed to see this information. But also decided that the three of them should be the only ones who know the information on their friends. The rangers are not meant to get entangled in Therlathia’s civil war. Their problems were their own and theirs alone. They needed to find their friends and find a way off the planet on their own. And if Bellandei was not going to directly assist them, then they felt as though her help was not desired. Catalina went on to explain that they don’t know much about how the conflict started to even get involved in the first place.

“We give all the information except for the location of Libby and Kar-Mahn. Charlie, get out of there now. Think up some excuse to leave.”

“Boring conversation anyway,” Charlie muttered as he put the tea down, called out to Rozara and said he had to leave. “Bellandai said she needed me to help with basic training for some of the troops. My apologies!” his voice trailed off just as he was getting ready to go out the door. And the moment he left, Rozara had re-entered the room with a look of confusion and a pair of headphones blocking her ears, which she was using as she jammed out to her favorite music just seconds earlier. As she looked around the room, scanning it for Charlie’s presence and found no sign of him, she smiled nefariously before strolling back over to her glass of iced tea.

Once he met up with Cat and B’rula, Charlie gave them their morphers and communicators back. Catalina tasked B’rula with giving the data drive Charlie had examined to Bellandei. He left it in her office while she was gone, because Catalina also said they needed transport in order to make it to the coordinates where their friends are and there were spare keys in one of the lockers in her office, which B’rula had taken after breaking in. 

The three of them take small transports from the vehicle depot, some weird looking motorcycles with weird circular pads underneath it in place of wheels, which almost resembled the shape of a dragon’s head in their sleek design. 

“Hands up, who knows out to operate one of these,” asked Charlie, jokingly.

“Not funny,” said B’rula.

“Stow it, the both of you. We’ll need to take a crash course. There’s no time to waste. Our friends may be in trouble.”

“Or maybe they’re going through the same thing we’re going through. Being coerced into helping the opposition against the faction we were drafted into.” Charlie replied. “This all seems like the plot of a TV series or something that I remember watching before I was frozen unjustly by GPD.”

“Something about this does smell a little funky, but we can’t stand around and make such speculations without all the pieces of the puzzle,” replied Catalina. “Now let’s ride.”

The whole way to the compound, Catalina and B’rula were constantly talking about old movies and their favorite television shows; some that were cancelled and others that were still ongoing or taking a break due to a mix of different issues. Meanwhile, Charlie was still thinking back on the dream that he had of him and Cheryl. And all of this was brought on because of how he nearly killed Rozara in attempt to try and save her from Athen Raahma back at the enemy base where the rangers were attempting to steal their weapons back from. The vision of Cheryl shooting him in the shoulder as revenge for him shooting her in the shoulder replayed over and over the entire time. But the moment that they all stopped at a refueling station, Catalina addressed Charlie, hoping to investigate his sudden silent mood and expressions of guilt and regret. Charlie was reluctant, at first, to talk about it, but eventually decided to mention the dream. He was confused as to why he was just now having it. But Catalina couldn’t really tell him what it meant as she was not a licensed therapist. But she still tried to give him comfort regardless as B’rula tried locating either the service attendant or a way to activate the fuel pumps.  
Catalina stopped talking to take a look around and note how deserted the entire area was. No signs of life, sentient life to be more precise. No Therlathians, no wildlife, not much in the ways of flora either. “Is it seriously this shitty across the entire planet?” she said in a condescending tone.

“A real honeymoon hotspot,” said Charlie sarcastically. “I wonder if there’s any food inside. Maybe some music. Do Therlathians even go for that sorta thing?”

“You’ve seriously never been here?”

“Wasn’t exactly on my list of vacation destinations or on any of GPD’s lists either. Also, you’re one to talking. You didn’t even know there was a Civil War going on; same as me and B’rula.”

“I didn’t know how it started actually. I knew there was one. I’m not that out-of-touch with the galaxy. I was merely a cadet still, around the time.”

Just then, their morpher’s tracking systems started beeping. The displayed showed a massive surge in energy near their location. Somewhere towards B’rula’s location near the back of the fueling station. B’rula was the first to notice this and went to check it out. And immediately after B’rula heard voices, one belonging to Athen Raahma; Catalina and Charlie showed up and stopped him from going closer. She instead took his place as she peered around the corner stealthily to see Athen talking with a group of soldiers, unlike any that they had seen. These soldiers weren’t the normal troops they crossed paths with at the previous compound. Most of their armor as ribbed and was all black almost like some type of demonic metallic skeleton-like design or that of the armor worn by Superman’s people. And their helmets, which covered all of their heads, displayed a bright blue aura around the eyes as if their eyes were made of blue flames. There were only two voices, Athen Raahma and that of yet another who used a voice changer similar to Angel Hydran’s mysterious employer. And the unknown voice scolded Athen on her failure and allowing the rangers to get a hold of sensitive information. There was no mention of Rozara by the mysterious voice, but Athen explained how it was Rozara’s fault for getting in the way, but the voice didn’t want to hear any of Athen’s excuses.

“But sir, I nearly took care of her, but those rangers she brought with her and…”

“I’ve seen to it that you will get a second chance to redeem yourself. Pretty much, the rangers are now your top priority. Leave Rozara be for now. They’re on their way to meet up with their friends and I need you to prevent that from happening. My hands are tied with keeping things under wraps here. 

“Who’s she talking to?” B’rula whispered.

“It’s probably Gallyndos. And it sounds like he’s got a spy in Bellandei’s army,” Catalina explained.

“You think maybe we should find a way to warn Bellandei?”

“This isn’t our fight. we need to stay focused on getting our friends back. Now, have you had any luck with accessing the fuel pumps, B’rula,” whispered Catalina.

“I was in the middle of it when I heard them teleport in,” he whispered back.

Meanwhile, as our heroes talked, Athen and her unknown army vanished, meaning that they no longer had to whisper. Charlie was the first one to bring up how those soldiers Athen was with weren’t like the soldiers they faced earlier. Catalina presumed that they may have just been some elite forces and the three of them never brought it up again.

“We need to refuel and continue onward soon as possible.”

“We should maybe return to Bellandei and beg her to lend us some troops. Because the three of us, taking on another base, but this time, by ourselves…” mentioned B’rula.

“Bellandei, I assume we can trust her, but we’re not sure who the spy is in her ranks. We go back, we might either be arrested for desertion, and possibly treason to go with it, or possibly killed by the spy themselves, who ever he or she may be. Going back is a death sentence,” explained Catalina.

“She’s right,” Charlie replied. “It’s classic action/adventure movie axiom. Or trope, I dunno which is the correct term.”

Meanwhile back at Bellandei’s base, Rozara confronted Bellandei about the rangers’ sudden disappearance. And Bellandei was not pleased. She was abrasive the entire time they spoke. And worst of all, the data drive B’rula left on her desk was missing. All that was left was the note. And Rozara was baffled as she mentioned how she overheard Charlie talking with the others on communicator about leaving it behind. 

“They mentioned something about not knowing who to trust, ma’am. Perhaps we have a spy in our midst.”

“That’s a bold accusation, given how inept you’ve been at your job recently,” Bellandei abruptly replied.

“Ma’am, I’ve never been anything, but loyal to your cause. I have no motive to betray you. And what motive would those rangers have either? They’re just looking for their friends. But I guarantee you I will track them down and gets some answers. If you’ll permit me, General.”

“Fine then. If it’ll get you out of my sights. I authorize your mission. Go play bounty hunter for a while; I’ll look into the situation of the spy in my ranks.”

“Thank you,” said Rozara as she took a bow and began to exit her office.

Several hours later, Catalina, B’rula, and Charlie arrive at the coordinates of their friends and quickly get to devising a plan for infiltration as they were stuck in front of a big, metal door. After going through all the options, B’rula’s suggestion was that they tunnel their way in. the ground beneath their feet was solid ice and he had the brilliant idea to melt their way through it and tunnel the rest of the way in and under the door. He used the cartridge from his sidearm’s energy to cause extreme heat. The entire floor started glowing in a brilliant flash of blue before finally crumbling and the three of them plummeted into a rocky underground area. But it turned out that there was a tunnel already drilled and they were not alone. As the one guard approached the sound of the noise, Charlie quickly drew his weapon and took a shot, taking her down in an instant before she could quickly draw her in retaliation; the shot was silenced, but Catalina and B’rula had their guns up just in case there were more where she came from while Charlie slowly lowered his weapon in regret after noticing the gender of the guard. And the fact that it was a woman and had the same hair as his former teammate and girlfriend, Cheryl, was what made him think back to his dream.

Up ahead of them, there was a minefield and a large assortment of automatic turrets the size of railguns on a warship with laser sighting as well as a few guards on patrol. It was easy for them to avoid the mines, but not so much for the turrets or the guards; until Charlie mentioned some stealth tech, he kept from Bellandei’s armory. They could turn themselves invisible. He wasn’t sure for how long as he didn’t have a chance to test it the last time.

Once Charlie passed the cloaking devices to Cat and B’rula, and they activate them, Charlie explained how they needed to move slowly so not to make a lot of unnecessary noise. After Catalina scanned the minefield to help chart a safe path across, Charlie took the lead. Despite being invisible, the three of them were still able to see each other’s outlines and were able to follow them perfectly, but after getting several feet across, he walked accidentally walked through the laser sight for one of the turrets and an alarm went off. A shot was fired, which set off several of the mines. But yet, he still remained invisible as he landed near a couple more mines, but B’rula threw a shield to him in order to keep him from being turned into hamburger meat and the three of them continued to race through the barrage of laser fire and mines exploding around them. the enemy soldiers, however, were still having a hard time locating them due to their cloaking technology. But before they could successfully do so, our heroes make it to the other side of the open area. They de-cloak and immediately try to bypass the sealed door, only to have it open up and show their friends, Kar-Mahn and Libby waiting for them on the other side, not in any danger whatsoever. Both sides were shocked to see each other.

“What are you guys doing here?” asked Kar-Mahn.

“We came to rescue you,” said B’rula.

“We were trying to get out of here to rescue you,” replied Libby in confusion.

“Are you playing some sort of joke right now, because it is not funny,” said Charlie. “I’m already stressed out enough as it is.”

Libby and B’rula began to explain what’s been happening since their crash. It was sometime around, or perhaps later, when Libby and Kar-Mahn had awoken. But they, unlike their friends, were lying handcuffed to their hospital beds. When they finally awoke, they were escorted, still in chains, however, to another room by two soldiers being accompanied by Athen Raahma. 

“I cannot understand why Gallyndos is even entertaining the notion of an audience with the likes of you two. It is a complete waste of his time,” she said abrasively.

“Where are the others?” Kar-Mahn also asked in a similar tone.

“What others? It was just you two onboard that wreck.”

“There were three others just like us,” Libby replied.

“I imagine they may be somewhere else on the planet. Our scouts saw two flaming objects fall from the sky. But I suggest you save any further questions for the General.”

“Is he as nasty as you’re being?” asked Kar-Mahn, only to get no further response.

The moment they meet Gallyndos, he immediately requests for Libby and Kar-Mahn’s cuffs to be removed and their weapons and morphers returned to them before offering them a somewhat sincere apology.

“Please start explaining what’s going on, sir. Otherwise, you’re gonna wish you hadn’t taken these off,” replied Libby aggressively.

“What do you humans say when someone is hostile? ‘Pump your brakes’? because, if I wanted it, you’d have been killed at the crash site. And we’d salvage whatever was there with you,” said Gallyndos arrogantly.

“Oh, you’d be surprised what we can live through, whatever your name is.”

“You may call me General Gallyndos. And I assure you, I am not your enemy unless you make me one. Now, please enhance calm.” Gallyndo was in a royal blue armor from the neck down with several abnormal accents over the arms, the chest, and the back of his arms and on his shoulder blades. His helmet was almost identical to Bellandei’s, but with a Y shaped visor and bluish-green eyes and long, black dreadlocks draping down to his shoulders.

“Gallyndos. Now, I remember you. And yet, you wish me to enhance my calm? After what you’re doing to the people?”

“What ‘I’m’ doing? I think you’ve got your facts wrong, Miss Chan.”

“How do you know my name? But maybe you’d like to set me straight first as to what the fuck is going on.”

Gallyndos started off by explaining how it was Bellandei and her forces that were causing civil unrest in hopes of conquering the planet and that he was not to blame for starting this war. Libby was reluctant to believe his claims. “Well, maybe you’d like a bit of logic to help you digest the situation. You realize this is just a city, sort of like a cell in a much larger organism, right? This entire city is so small, that if Bellandei wanted to, she can just pack up and move to a different area. So, what reason why we have to fight? how does it benefit us? Or them? to waste all our resources and soldiers on a pointless war?”

“You have a point,” replied Kar-Mahn.

“But still, what’s the need for your mercenary? That woman? I’m assuming she’s a merc. I’ve dealt with a lot of them in the past to successfully identify one when I see one,” Libby inquired.

“Athen Raahma has been essential in keeping the rabble in line. She’s a brilliant technician and an excellent tactician and fighter.”

“But, given your world’s outlook on Humans…”

“I was reluctant to trust her as well, before she proved her worth. The jury is still out on the two of you though. And I’ll wager a guess that these friends of yours, who I assume are also GPD, may probably well have been picked up by those cave-dwelling savages.”

“And what of the weapons onboard our ship? Do you think they’re with them as well? If you think our friends will stand for our property to be used this ‘pointless war’ as you call it, then think again.”

“Yeah, we know our friends and they would never be onboard for a war crime of this magnitude.”

“Who’s the say they haven’t been arrested or worse?” asked Gallyndos.

“The same reason you haven’t put us in a cell or offed us. You need us in some way, I presume. And I assume your opposition might need us.”

“High expectations. I admire that. But you ‘did’ hear the part about them being savages, right?”

“Despite that, we still need to try and look for them. just to be sure.”

“They will not show you any mercy. They haven’t shown us any mercy with all the explosions, the body counts, falling buildings, and base raiding’s.”

“We’ve dealt with far worse, General, trust me. We’ll be fine.”

After telling the story, Libby and Kar-Mahn concluded with how the General wanted to assign some soldiers to aid us in our quest and how, instead, they snuck away to come find Catalina, Charlie, and B’rula on our own.

“I know that this war has gone on for a long while, but… something about this makes no sense.”

“Yeah, because someone is lying. Whether it be Bellandei or this Gallyndos, I’m not certain,” replied Catalina. “Reason why I’ve told you, Charlie and B’rula, that this isn’t our fight.”

“Well, maybe we could sit these two sides down together and figure out what’s going on and how this really started,” asked Libby. 

“Agreed. We can’t just let them kill each other when could’ve possibly done something to prevent the bloodshed,” replied Kar-Mahn.

“I think have an idea what’s really going on here. Because this all feels so familiar to me in some way. Like it was part of some TV series or whatever.” But before Charlie could finish his thought, Charlie brought it to everyone’s attention how eerily quiet their surroundings had become. The turrets had stopped fired, there were no more soldiers shouting orders. Only sound was coming from the five of them.

After our heroes took the time to listen to the sound of silence, they head back out to where the minefield once was and looked all around. The turret guns were destroyed, the snowy ground resembled that of a chessboard without the pieces, and the alarms had ceased. 

“Did you guys bring anyone with you?” asked Libby.

“Hell no. we couldn’t figure out who to trust. Rozara seemed pretty shifty, Bellandei did once we found all that intelligence from the one base owned by your new friends. But then, it felt as though Bellandei was the only one who didn’t have a clue of what’s going on, so we left her the drive, all except for the information on where you two were supposedly being held. The whole thing was a shitshow. So, we were all we brought with us.”

As Kar-Mahn saw some of Gallyndos’ soldiers running towards them in fear with laser fire at their rear. One of the soldiers who ran past Libby asked all of them to run. Another one, after being stopped by Kar-Mahn, was asked to explain what was going on. She mentioned how these soldiers just showed up out of nowhere like ghosts and started shooting up the place. But before she could continue explaining, she was instantly shot in the head and fell into Kar-Mahn’s arms. And after she had fallen, the rest of her team was either turned into ice and shattered to pieces by laser fire or disintegrated into yellow dust.

One of the shooters was none other than Athen Raahma, and her attack prompted Catalina, Charlie, and B’rula to raise their guns. But seeing as she and her men, who were cloaked at the time, had the high ground, Athen recommended they lower their weapons and surrender. And that’s when the invisible soldiers at Raahma’s side de-cloaked to reveal themselves as the blue-eyed army Catalina and her faction saw earlier at the refueling station. Charlie whispered this fact to Libby, which made her even more confused.

“Athen Raahma, right?” asked Libby. “You mind telling me what the hell is going on here? You just killed the men you were working for. What is this? S-some sort of coup d'état?” she stuttered.

“And what do you plan on doing to solve this whole civil war crisis?”

“I wouldn’t expect for any of you to understand the bigger picture since you’ve only just gotten here. It’s just like going to an art show and you know nothing about the subject at all.”

“I’m getting pretty tired of people saying that to me. First your leader, Gallyndos said that and now you,” Libby snapped at Athen.

“And we got the same lecture from Bellandei,” explained Catalina. 

“If you really want to know, I suggest checking out your six o’clock,” said Athen Raahma. 

The rangers thought she was tricking them and they weren’t going to fall for it. But eventually, Rozara passed between them and revealed that Athen was being serious. B’rula quickly trained his gun at her location, asking her what she was doing here.

“B’rula, what the hell are you doing? Isn’t she with you?” asked Kar-Mahn.

“She isn’t with us. And she shouldn’t have any idea where we are. We left that out of the files. So, how did you even know we were here in the first place? She’s the spy. She has been all along.”

Catalina and Libby were the next to turn their guns on Rozara. Catalina questioned whether she and Athen were working together. But Rozara all too eager to mention the truth that was way too impossible for them to believe at first; that she and Athen were one and the same. To prove it, Rozara had done something else that looked impossible. Her original body that was standing in front of the rangers transformed into one of the robots that were standing near Athen and then Athen transformed into Rozara, who had then started talking to the rangers in a calm manner, but was interrupted by B’rula, who wanted to know about the reason Rozara stopping the transfer of data just because her former partner had shown up to wreck things.

“She’s playing both sides. That information, we weren’t supposed to have it, were we?” replied Charlie.

“I didn’t expect…” Rozara paused to retake her original robot body. “I should’ve sent B’rula to face her, my other half. Maybe I’d have one less ranger. And not that big of a mess to clean up. But it was good of you to leave those files. Now, I have more to use against both sides and possibly move closer to my goals. You see, this planet is rich in minerals I can use to conquer the rest of this galaxy. But I need the inhabitants gone before I can start mining. But just killing them all outright would draw too much attention. So, I let them all kill each other instead; you know that saying that You humans have about the greatest trick the Devil pulled? I pull off a few assassinates here and there, lead the trail from one person to another and then finally, we have a civil war happening.”

“Though, every story about the devil? He never comes out on top.” Said Catalina before she drew her morpher and attempted to don her ranger form. As she did, though, Rozara enveloped her in a ball of yellow energy with areas of dark brown, volcanic rock-like substance. The sphere of energy rapidly spun as she morphed and as it did, Rozara and her robot army slowly changed colors, matching that of Catalina’s Platinum Ranger form. As soon as Cat was done morphing, it was soon revealed that Rozara had copied the material of Cat’s ranger form, making her army into platinum soldiers.

“Matter creator and replicator,” Rozara explained in a soft maniacal tone. “Your own ranger powers will the death of you here and now. The truth will remain buried, along with all five of you and my plans will continue onward with no more interruptions. You can stop the blade from falling and you never will able to.”

B’rula, Libby, and Kar-Mahn morphed next, and they, Catalina, and Charlie, who still didn’t have a ranger form, were getting ready to jump into battle, but before they could rush towards the enemy, Sewil and Feby arrived in their ranger form to rescue them. they held back Rozara, Athen, and their forces long enough for the seven of them to teleport to safety.

“Run while you can, rangers. I will find you eventually. But for now, I have some tragic news to deliver.” Rozara sends Aten Raahma back to the Capitol to report to Gallyndos that Libby and Kar-Mahn were tragically killed while she returns to Bellandei to report that her that Catalina, Charlie, and B’rula met the same fate.

And at the same time, when Feby, Sewil, and Catalina and her team teleported to a remote location, they briefly go through a meet and greet. Charlie was the only one who never got introduced to the Gemini Rangers, so he was really ecstatic to meet them as he rushed her to shake their hands for their valiant rescue. Meanwhile, the others were just wondering what they were doing here. Sewil and Feby explained what happened when they arrived on Mars; the ferocious battle that took place, how the entire Facility that Cat was once at with Brutan and Mara almost released all of cryogenically frozen inmates and how they easily defeated an army of demonic looking robots while Mara and some of Nolan Kirk’s crew worked to reverse the process. After the fight was over and facility’s computers were shut down and the frozen prisoners went back into stasis, they all chatted with Maas Tobias, who had no knowledge of all that transpired, and Brutan and the others explained how the Catalina and her team were tracking the stolen weapons from the base on the jungle planet to Therlathia. Sewil and Feby even went to mention how Nolan was receiving new orders and that he was unable to come along with them. and Brutan and Mara needed to get back to Earth, but Brutan asked them to him a favor and check on the rangers. 

“So, it’s just you guys? Or did you bring your crew with you?” asked Kar-Mahn.

“We figured just the two of us would draw less attention. But regardless, we were spotted easily,” said Sewil.

“Not shot down, but pulled into the atmosphere by something. We had no control over our craft,” explained Feby.

“We tried contacting our crew, who is on the outer border of Therlathia, but we can’t get a signal out.”

“Same for us,” replied Catalina. “There must be a signal jamming tower or something. Courtesy of Rozara Pengo, the woman we were almost killed by. She’s been messing with both sides of this war, trying to get them to kill each other while she mines this planet for resources and then moves on to conquer the rest of the galaxy.”

After several seconds of silence, Charlie was asked by B’rula if he was okay. The question snapped him back to reality and he blurted out, “What if the island is jamming our signal? It can’t be a coincidence that it and Rozara are here.”

“Yeah, I did remember hearing Bellandei mentioning that it arrived sometime after she did. That must be some sort of staging ground for her and her machines,” answered B’rula.

“If we can get there, maybe we’ll find what’s jamming the signal and possibly bring in reinforcements.”

“I dunno about reinforcements, other than our crew perhaps. But we need to move fast. Because I told them if they don’t hear from us after 24 hours, they are to leave Therlathian space.”

“They’re just gonna abandon us here?!” Kar-Mahn yelled.

“We can’t put them at risk of going through what has happened to us,” replied Feby.

“It’s up to us,” said Sewil.

“I agree. But even if we succeed in establishing communication, we need take down that tractor beam, that’s what I assume drew you two in, if we need their help here on the ground,” explained Catalina.

“And we’re going to need our stolen weapons back,” said Libby. “It’s apparent that Gallyndos doesn’t have them. unless Bellandei has…”

“Nope. She was looking for them at that base we raided, but they were there either,” replied Charlie.

“Which means Rozara has them,” said Kar-Mahn.

Within seconds of her mentioning Rozara’s name, the platinum army she had created from Catalina’s powers, descended upon our heroes and yet another ferocious battle ensues. The rangers are confused as to how she found them while they attempted to fight off their assailants, who seemed to have the strength of a tank and were very resilient to everything they threw at them.

Halfway through the battle, Catalina thought back to the moment she saw her morpher and B’rula’s sitting in Rozara’s lab after she had supposedly repaired the damages she said they have suffered during the ship crash. She remembered how she told Charlie over communicator when he was in her lab that the Platinum Rangers powers were particularly tricky to work on. She didn’t question it at first how Rozara was able to repair it until right this very moment. Catalina deduced that the morphers were never damaged. Rozara had just said they were and she had installing tracking software to keep tabs on their whereabouts. Catalina ordered Sewil and Feby to take them somewhere else. And once they did, Catalina explained what she just figured out to the rest of the team. It took a little while for B’rula, Sewil, and Feby to delete the tracking software in all the rangers’ morphers, but after they were successful, their signal locations dropped off of Rozara’s maps; Rozara was extremely angry about this, but she went about calming herself down before she could do anything brash to draw attention to herself and decided to dedicate her time to figuring out another way to get rid of her opposition.

“I’d say this is a new low, but this is the first time we’ve encountered a being on this level; and our past enemies have done similar feats or possibly somewhere close to being far worse. The sooner we take this bitch down, the better,” replied Libby in a scorned tone of voice.

“I couldn’t agree more, but she’s probably also got that island heavily fortified.”

“And it’s not like we can just go back to both factions of Therlathians and ask for their help. She’s probably got mass amounts of her machine army doubling up to keep us from interfering at this point.”

“So pretty much, we are on our own; like we were when we first got here,” said Charlie.

“What are we gonna do?” asked B’rula. “The seven of us against an entire army, commanded by a brilliant tactician. It’s not like we can just swim up or fly up to her doorstep.”

“Why not? Charlie, with your love of movies and TV shows, I think you might agree with what I’m about to suggest,” said Libby, bringing Charlie close so she can discuss the plan to him.

As Libby Chan’s words put a smile on Charlie’s face, the others suddenly became confused, but she eventually told them as well. She just wanted to see the look on Charlie’s face first before suggesting that she would morph into her Crow Ranger form, Basejump towards the island to draw the attention of any defense systems the island may have, so that the others can swim in below the surface of the water. Somewhat similar to how Captain America launched a one-man-assault on the enemy base in First Avenger to draw Hydra’s attention away from the Allied forces. The plan seemed to work as Libby was immediately receiving laser fire from turrets hidden around the island in forested areas and mountainous regions. She performed various acrobatic feats to avoid being shot down while complaining to her teammates and sarcastically asking them who’s idea it was for her to do this.

“You need any assistance or are you good?”

“I’m good,” she exclaimed over the barrage of gunfire. “I just wish I wasn’t the only one who could fly.” Catalina reminded Libby that she could also fly and Libby responded, “Is it too late for you to get your ass up here then?!”

“Probably so,” said Catalina. “Just try your best to come out of this in one piece.”

“Don’t worry. I plan to. And you do realize you almost made that sound dirty, right?”

“No, I didn’t. what part of that made it sound like an innuendo?” answered Cat, shockingly.

“Can we have that discussion later,” asked Feby. 

“I’m picking up three energy signatures across the island. Those must be what are jamming our signal. We’re gonna have to split up into groups to efficiently destroy them,” explained Sewil. “I’m sending their locations to your tracker’s radar feed.”

The six rangers were doubled up, riding in on the gliders Cat, B’rula, and Charlie took from Bellandei’s motor pool. They were submerged in the water surrounded by a shield, which helped keep the transform the water around them into fresh air, just in case Rozara was still somehow able to track their ranger form’s energy signature. So far, the only one that Rozara’s defenses was tracking was Libby Chan, who, while still dodging shots, attempted to destroy some of the turrets to help even her odds. Over the course of 30 seconds, she managed to take out five guns before the shockwave from a sixth caused her to lose control temporarily. After falling three feet, she was able to spread her wings against the continue on.

Five minutes later, Sewil, Feby, Catalina, B’rula, Charlie, and Kar-Mahn make landfall and begin deciding who was going to be one whose team before they broke up into groups of three. Sewil and Feby teamed up, obviously; next was Kar-Mahn and Charlie, and Catalina and B’rula. Group one, Gemini Rangers, went for the middle tower, group two too the far west tower and Group three, the far east.

Once the groups made it to their destinations, they were shocked to see Rozara’s forces appear out of nowhere to provide opposition. The platinum warriors she created faced off against Catalina and B’rula, who immediately morph into their ranger form while a seemingly endless army of regular robots stood between the other two groups and the radio jammer towers. All rangers had a tough time getting past their respective opponents in order to do what they needed to do to shut them down. And after Sewil and Feby effortlessly took down several dozens of enemies, the remaining enemies liquefied and formed a six-foot-tall, hulking machine. The twins quickly switched tactics and used their acrobatic skills to try and evade the beast. Moments later, Libby swooped in to offer her assistance after noticing from above that they needed it.

Ten more minutes into the fight, Rozara projected an image of herself onto the body of one of the robots facing Catalina and B’rula, absorbed the platinum ranger powers of one of her machines and formed a weapon similar to Catalina’s before engaging her directly. Catalina threw her hammer before rushing towards Rozara, who swatted it away with her spiked ball mace weapon, spiraled and launched her weapon at Catalina, who immediately slid under it on her heels while calling her hammer back to her and using it to slide to the right of Rozara, very far to the right before flying back towards her with her hammer pulling her in her direction in attempt to slam into her. But Rozara called her weapon back and swatted Catalina to the ground like she was hitting a baseball one-handed. And while Catalina was on her stomach, Rozara kicked in her side and lifted her off the ground a couple of inches before performing an underhand pitch to launch her mace and push Catalina further away. But at the same time, Catalina rotated and threw her hammer and pushed Rozara away too. As Catalina rolled, Rozara slid back on her soles, called her weapon to her, raised it to the sky to summon lightning from a dark cloud, which appeared out of nowhere, but could be seen from miles away by both Therlathian factions, and redirected the lightning at Cat. Just seconds before the lightning reached her, Catalina summoned lightning into her hammer, rotated the weapon 90 degrees and channeled the lightning to give her a speed boost. Catalina moved at the speed of sound, dodging Rozara’s lightning, racing up to her, and smacking her across the right cheek to make her spiral to the ground. Catalina continued her assault before Rozara could even hit the ground, however, knocking her in every-which-direction and there was nothing Rozara could do to stop it; temporarily of course, because eventually she was granted with a short boost of energy which allowed her to control the very ground beneath her feet to hold Cat in place, cancelling out her super speed and tipping the scale in her favor. Rozara punched Cat in the stomach with her weapon and gripped her throat, all the while with a plain expression on her face. The same one she had at the start of the battle; even when Cat quickly punched her in the stomach and performed an uppercut with her hammer, which loosened her opponent’s grip and forced her to stumble back. But before Cat could rush in with another attack, the hammer was knocked from her hands. Catalina fought with her hands and feet and quickly disarmed Rozara; forcing her to fight in hand-to-hand combat too. 

And as they kept fighting, the odds were gradually increasing for Catalina’s teammates. Charlie and Kar-Mahn managed to work as a team to get past the army of robots standing in their way and disabled the first jamming tower. But the signal was still too weak to make any calls. But the moment they informed Catalina that the first tower was destroyed, Catalina started chatting up Rozara as they fought; asking her all about her plans.

“So, all of this, turning these two sides against each other, is for what exactly? If we’re to die right here and now, you owe us that much to let us in on the whole story. It’s not a machine to play the long-game. You remind me of Skynet in the Terminator movies. You’d rather toy with the lives of your enemies instead of flat-out kill them straight away.”

“Helps make my work a little easier. Most of what they do as they scurry around, fighting each other, blowing up bases and buildings, they de-stabilize countless regions. Besides, if I just start drilling and doing blasting of my own, they’d wise up fast before I’m even finished ripping them off. That’s what’s wrong with certain species in real life and even some of the ones, which you humans write about in movies. You don’t invade a world making noise. The best strategy is to make a species occupy themselves with another foe, even if you gotta make one up by having them turn on each other, and you just slip in between their blindspots. You divide them and either conquer them or steal right from under their noses. No one ever won a war by fighting on multiple fronts.”

“Greatest trick the devil ever pulled.”

“Exactly. Now enough talk. Give me all of your strength; 100%.”

“Now, that we can agree on.” Catalina then switched her weapon’s mode from hammer to sword before charging into battle once again. Every other strike she threw at Rozara wasn’t enough to make her flinch; other strikes, Rozara could instantly block before she threw back more powerful versions to cause Catalina to stumble. The two went back and forth repeatedly hardly ever making the other move, unless by their own free will. Rozara came in hard with a haymaker from the left with her mace and Catalina blocked with the tang of her blade as the tip faced the ground and threw a hard-left cross to the cheek. Rozara pivoted 90 degrees and struck Catalina’s abdomen with an open palm from her right hand and shoved her so hard that she fell on her backside. As she lied there, trying to get back on her feet, she saw B’rula attempting to come to her aid, but Catalina shook her head in protest and signaled with the stealthy tilting of her head for B’rula to continue the primary objective.

Rozara noticed the silent gestures from both of them and immediately deployed the other extensions of herself to engage B’rula. As B’rula attempted to fight his way past them to reach the tower, she noticed Catalina take out her communicator and text someone on it. But what Rozara see was who she was texting. She texted Libby and tasked her with assisting B’rula.

Libby, who was still assisting Sewil and Feby had gotten the go ahead from the two of them to abandon them and go help B’rula. They reassured her they’ll manage without her before she flew off. Seconds after the fact, the giant robot the Gemini Rangers were fighting split off some of its mass, significantly making itself smaller. And that part of it that shed slithered across the sand in a large puddle of liquid metal as he pursued Libby Chan. Several seconds later, she was flying over B’rula’s location where she saw him being bombarded from all sides by the silver-colored metal monstrosities. She performed an acrobatic maneuver and swooped in with her laser blaster in hand and fired several well-placed shots to disorient the creatures. Then she warned B’rula to get clear before she dropped bombs on top of them to further disorient them and knocked them on their behinds; giving B’rula a window of opportunity to reach the tower, which he was able to plant some bombs to the base of; enough bombs to knock it over.

Rozara briefly stopped her assault on Catalina to take notice as another tower went down. And yet again, rather than get enraged, she re-engaged Catalina and in a calm tone of voice, said to her, “It doesn’t matter if you destroy my jamming towers, or my tractor beam.” She then gripped Catalina by the throat and lifted her a couple inches off the ground before saying, “They can be rebuilt. But you won’t. unless I decide to turn you into machines like me and program you with the same tenacity and courage you’ve shown me today, but without all of your heroic qualities, which will be replaced with a sense of completing a mission no matter how violent, or monstrous the parameters are.” Rozara was going to go for a killing stroke, but B’rula interrupted her by first firing some shots to the arm to force her into releasing her grip. After about ten shots to the arm, B’rula was finally successful, but Rozara then turned her attention him, conjuring a powerful gust of wind to knock him on his backside. 

B’rula also lost his blaster during the fall and it was instantly covered in sand before he could locate it and he started taking rocks from the border between the sandy beach and the partially grassy and dirty sort of jungle type area towards the island interior and threw them repeatedly at Rozara as she approached to try and kill him.  
Before Rozara could succeed, Catalina rushed to his rescue. “YOU’RE FIGHT IS WITH ME, BITCH! DON’T TELL ME YOU’RE AFRAID!” she bellowed before summoning lightning to stun her and give B’rula time to dig his weapon out of the sand.

Rozara chuckled lightly, “I’ve never once been afraid of a group of colorful young adult in spandex pretending they’re extras from that terrible movie named Kick-Ass. Because I’ve pretty much been one step ahead since you crashed and now that we come face to face, I’ve been the one who’s been kicking ‘your’ ass. I know your every move without ever looking up your GPD records, miss Andrews.”

“So, we’re like a collective Natasha Romanoff to your cybernetically enhanced Taskmaster, is that it? Because I’d rather consider myself to be Wade Wilson’s Deadpool; and we know how well Taskmaster did when they fought in the comics.”

“Why must we even fight at all, ranger?” Rozara asked confusedly. “Why fight to save these people? They are a lost cause. This home, it’s no longer a paradise and the occupants need to be exterminated before they no longer have any ground to walk on,” explained Rozara before she heard the last tower fall. “Even if you take out all my towers, what will you do then? Radio for help? Your organization doesn’t even care for the Therlathians’ internal struggles. Otherwise, they’d have sent more than the Wonder Twins to back the five of you up. And even if you convince them somehow of what’s really going on, the inhabitants might be dead long before GPD can even assemble an army. They will have traveled all this way for nothing.”

“Oh, E.T. is going to phone home, alright. But that’s not where our message is going to go and that’s not what we’re planning on telling either.” Catalina had transmitted a message to both Bellandei’s resistance and Gallyndos’ army at the Capitol. And through the eyes of Athen Raahma, Rozara was shocked to see what was being displayed on all the functioning big screens and small screens around the entire city. And as Rozara had the look in her eyes of a little girl with her hand caught in a cookie jar, Catalina had put a big smile on her face as she realized she had her attention.

On the screens at both the City and the base, Bellandei and Gallyndos’ forces were watching taped conversations of Catalina and Rozara with Rozara verbally wrapping a noose around her neck to hang herself as she explained full details of her plan to wipe out both sides and claim the planet for herself. Bellandei and Gallyndos were the most flabbergasted out of everyone else as this shocking new development that they’ve all been chasing lies this entire time, which were fabricated by an outsider they shouldn’t have trusted at all, given their outlook on both humans and members of GPD. Afterwards, Gallyndos ordered the immediate arrest of Athen Raahma, who had, unbeknownst to him, was trying to escape the city with the help of some of Rozara’s robots who lied in wait around the city, cloaked and ready to attack when things started looking as they were going sideways on Rozara or Athen’s orders. Gallyndos, after learning of this, deployed all troops to apprehend her; and after a short battle, the robots were destroyed, but Athen wouldn’t be arrested so easily and was also destroyed along with her machines.

Meanwhile, back on the battlefield, Catalina snapped Rozara back to reality as she spoke out, “The people of Therlathia; In a paradise, they are not, that’s true. But it's all they’ve got, all they want and to them, it's all worth fighting for; despite your beliefs. And now, you’ve gone from making one enemy to making several.” Her words prompt Rozara to lunge at her, but before she could even throw a hit, Cat’s friends blasted her back with combined shots from their sidearm’s and knock her on her behind.

“This is a mistake. Whether just the seven of you or all three factions standing in my way, I will get what I came here for. You can’t stop this. You just turned this Civil War into an Endless one.” Rozara teleported away to safety. 

At first, the Gemini Rangers contacted their ship to alert them of their status and that of the other rangers. They then regaled their crew of all that transpired while Catalina and her team established communication with both sides of the war in attempt to bring them together to negotiate a cease-fire so to discuss terms of a truce. And as they went on with doing so, the island started experiencing violent seismic disruptions. It originally came from the sky and somehow past through the atmosphere without disrupting the planet’s magnetic field, but this time, instead of rising, it started sinking into the ocean, which prompted the rangers to flee. This time, all the rangers were beamed aboard Sewil and Feby’s ship instead of having to ride the gliders across the water to safety.

Once they were out of danger, the rangers rested and replenished their energy before beaming back down to the surface. Sewil went with Libby and Kar-Mahn talk with Gallyndos; Feby went with Catalina, Charlie, and B’rula to speak with Bellandei so to continue convincing the sides to meet on neutral ground. They managed to successfully get them to agree to a meeting where they discussed the recent events and what they were going to do about Rozara’s sneaky and aggressive occupation. The rangers agreed to stay and help the Therlathians out in any way they could.


End file.
